
<p align="center">
	<span class="huge">
		About MSU OAI Search
	</span>
</p>

<p>
<blockquote>
<dl>
<dt><a href="#what">1. What is the Open Archives Initiative (OAI)?</a></dt>
<dt><a href="#purpose">2. What is the purpose of the MSU OAI Search?</a></dt>
<dt><a href="#why">3. How does this search help me?</a></dt>
<dt><a href="#tools">4. What other tools does MSU OAI Search make use of?</a></dt>
<dt><a href="#features">5. What are some interesting features that the MSU OAI Search provides?</a></dt>
<dt><br><a href="#guide"><b>6. The MSU OAIS Guide to Searching</b></a></dt>
	<dd><a href="#guide_1">a. Simple Searches</a></dd>
	<dd><a href="#guide_2">b. Field Searches</a></dd>
	<dd><a href="#guide_3">c. Advanced Search Tool </a></dd>
	<dd><a href="#guide_4">d. Beyond Advanced Search</a></dd>
<dt><br><a href="#direct"><b>7. Guide to Directory Suggestions and Approval</b></a></dt>
	<dd><a href="#direct_1">a. Record Submission</a></dd>
	<dd><a href="#direct_2">b. Directory Submission</a></dd>
	<dd><a href="#direct_3">c. Link Submission</a></dd>
	<dd><a href="#direct_4">d. Editor Approval</a></dd>
</dl>
</blockquote>
</p>

<p>
	<div>
		<span class="larger"><a name="what">
			What is the Open Archives Initiative (OAI)?
		</a></span>
		<br><br>
		<div class="margin2em">
			In its simplest form, OAI is a collaborative effort to provide
			a means of making content available electronically. The Open Archives
			Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) is the primary
			framework for accomplishing this.<br>
			See the <a href="http://www.openarchives.org/documents/FAQ.html">Official OAI FAQ</a> for more information.
			
		</div>
		<br><br>
	</div>
	<div>
		<span class="larger"><a name="purpose">
			What is the purpose of the MSU OAI Search?
		</a></span>
		<br><br>
		<div class="margin2em">
			We hope to provide a means to search the expanding wealth of OAI
			metadata with a single simple search interface. There are three parts
			to what we are doing.
			<br><br>
			<dl>
			<dt><i>Harvesting</i></dt>
			<dd>The ability to harvest from hundreds of repositories
			gathering metadata into a single database. Often times repositories
			do not comply with the OAI or XML standards and require special
			attention to harvest. This is an ongoing agenda so that we can
			harvest as many records as possible.
			<br><br></dd>
			<dt><i>Data Correction &amp; Preprocessing</i></dt>
			<dd>Correcting improper records and presenting data in the most
			search efficient form for the user.
			<br><br></dd>
			<dt><i>Powerful Search Tools</i></dt>
			<dd>A simple search interface, with additional features to assist in
			finding the documents the user wants. Basically, this is the web search
			interface.
			<br><br></dd>
			</dl>
		</div>
	</div>
	<div>
		<span class="larger"><a name="why">
			How does this search help me?
		</a></span>
		<br><br>
		<div class="margin2em">
			The MSU OAI Search combines hundreds of different OAI compliant
			metadata repositories together. You can search the digital
			records of libraries, universities, archives, research repositories,
			and more in a single place. By searching through many institutions 
			with a single search, gathering research materials and information
			can be done faster and with more results. The OAI Search may help
			you get what you need in minutes as opposed to what could be hours
			or days, an invaluable asset if the work you are doing is time
			critical.
		</div>
		<br><br>
	</div>
	<div>
		<span class="larger"><a name="tools">
			What other tools does MSU OAI Search make use of?
		</a></span>
		<br><br>
		<div class="margin2em">
			The OAI Search makes use of
			<a href="http://jakarta.apache.org/lucene">Lucene</a>, an extremely
			powerful, open source indexing and searching library. The indexing
			capabilities that Lucene provides allows for great flexibility in
			design of the search. Lucene search functionality is also very strong
			and allows for complex searches over millions of records to be
			performed very quickly.
			<br><br>
			The majority of OAIS is programmed using the 
			<a href="http://www.python.org/">Python</a> scripting language.
		</div>
		<br><br>
	</div>
	<div>
		<span class="larger"><a name="features">
			What are some interesting features that the MSU OAI Search provides?
		</a></span>
		<br><br>
		<div class="margin2em">
			Here are some of the many existing features in the MSU OAI Search.
			More useful and interesting features are currently under development.
			<br><br>
			<dl>
			<dt><i>User Adaptive Indexing</i></dt>
			<dd>User activity is recorded and used as
			a factor each time the metadata is indexed. This means that popular
			results for a search will be returned higher in the results.
			<br><br></dd>
			<dt><i>Quick Author Search</i></dt>
			<dd>When a single creator/author for a
			record is detected, an option to instantly search for all other
			records that where the author has contributed is provided. A simple
			click on the arrow next to the author's name will perform the search.
			<br><br></dd>
			<dt><i>Remember Record Infowindow</i> (non-IE users only)</dt>
			<dd>This feature is a handy tool to view detailed metadata for records
			and keep them temporary bookmarks as you search and browse OAIS.
			By clicking on <i>Remember</i> next to the record title, an in-browser
			"window" will appear where the expanded metadata will load. Clicking
			on other records' <i>Remember</i> will load them into the remaining
			available tabs. Up to 7 tabs are available. The Infowindow can be
			hidden or retrieved by clicking the top tab with the arrow inside. 
			You can <i>Forget</i> a tab by opening that tab and click
			<i>Forget</i>. This will turn the tab for that record a light red,
			which means it can be used to <i>Remember</i> another record. You can
			<i>Forget</i> all tabs by clicking on the bottom tab containing the
			red X. Forgotten tabs are not empty; rather, they will retain their
			record until overwritten with other.
			<br><br></dd>
			<dt><i>Non-linked Metadata</i></dt>
			<dd>While some might consider metadata without
			a link to the document as trash metadata, we believe it can still be of
			use. This data is still searchable along with the rest of the metadata
			within the search. Results where the link cannot be found are marked
			by the metadata brief with a light yellow background. The expanded
			metadata can still be viewed in the infowindow for details about where
			the document might be located and an additional link is provided to
			do a Google&#153; Scholar (or vanilla Google&#153;) search on the
			title.<br><br>
			An option to exclude these non-linked records is available on the
			advanced search page.
			<br><br></dd>
			</dl>
		</div>
	</div>
	<div>
	<div>
		<span class="larger"><a name="guide">
			The MSU OAIS Guide to Searching
		</a></span>
		<br><br>
		<div class="margin2em">
			<dl>
			<dt><b><a name="guide_1">Simple Searches</a></b><br><br></dt>
			<dd>Searching with OAIS is as simple as any other search engine.
			The easiest search you can do is to simply search with the terms you
			are interested in.<br><br></dd>
			<dd>
			<form action="/search.py" method="GET">
			<i>Here we'll search for records about railroads in Lansing.</i><br>
			<input type="text" name="s" maxLength=100 size=60 value="lansing railroad" readonly><br>
			<input type="submit" value="  Example Search  "></form>
			</dd>
			<dd>Of course, there may be times something you have clutter in your
			search results. This can be removed by specifying terms that you do
			not want in your results with a minus sign ( - ) before it.<br><br></dd>
			<dd>
			<form action="/search.py" method="GET">
			<i>If we don't want records about depots, we can exclude that term.</i><br>
			<input type="text" name="s" maxLength=100 size=60 value="lansing railroad -depot" readonly><br>
			<input type="submit" value="  Example Search  "></form>
			</dd>
			<dd>If you have many search terms the results can usually be improved
			by grouping them into phrases. By placing double quotes around several
			terms, you are telling OAIS that you want those terms to be treated as
			a single word. This means what you type between the quotes will be
			searched for exactly as you typed it.<br><br></dd>
			<dd>
			<form action="/search.py" method="GET">
			<i>Here we will search for railroad bridges in Lansing using a phrase search.</i><br>
			<input type="text" name="s" maxLength=100 size=60 value='lansing "railroad bridge"' readonly><br>
			<input type="submit" value="  Example Search  "></form>
			</dd>

			<dt><b><a name="guide_2">Field Searches</a></b><br><br></dt>
			<dd>
			A powerful tool for generating searches is to search by field. 
			Searching by field limits OAIS to finding the terms you specify only
			in a given field. To search by field simply put the fieldname and
			search term or phrase with a colon between them in the search box.
			<br><br></dd>
			<dd>
			<form action="/search.py" method="GET">
			<i>Lets search for records about the railroad and limit it to authors named Maxwell.</i><br>
			<input type="text" name="s" maxLength=100 size=60 value="railroad author:maxwell" readonly><br>
			<input type="submit" value="  Example Search  "></form>
			</dd>
			<dd>Field searches can also accept phrases. This can be very useful
			for searching a particular author or title.<br><br></dd>
			<dd>
			<form action="/search.py" method="GET">
			<i>Lets search for anything by Harold Mayer with the phrase "railroad yard" in the title.</i><br>
			<input type="text" name="s" maxLength=100 size=60 value='author:"Mayer, Harold" title:"railroad yard"' readonly><br>
			<input type="submit" value="  Example Search  "></form>
			</dd>

			<dd>
			There are a number of different fields, for the vase majority of users,
			the list below should cover all the useful fields. Any terms not given
			a field to search (any normal simple search) will then, by default,
			search the title, author, subject, and description fields.<br><br>
			<dl>
			<dt>title</dt>
			<dd>The title of the record</dd>
			<dt>author, creator</dt>
			<dd>The author or creator of the record</dd>
			<dt>desc, description</dt>
			<dd>The description or abstract of the record</dd>
			<dt>subject</dt>
			<dd>The subject field of the record</dd>
			<dt>pub, publisher</dt>
			<dd>The record publisher</dd>
			<dt>format</dt>
			<dd>Often refers to the file format the article is in, but
			is sometimes used to refer to the original format of the media</dd>
			<dt>type</dt>
			<dd>Often used to describe the genre of the record</dd>
			<dt>rep, repository</dt>
			<dd>The name of the repository where this record was pulled from</dd>
			<dt>contrib, contributor</dt>
			<dd>Contributors to this record</dd>
			<dt>lang, language</dt>
			<dd>Description of the language(s) that this record is in</dd>
			<dt>ll, langcode</dt>
			<dd>Let OAIS try to figure out the languages - using the three letter
			language identifier based on ISO-639, OAIS will limit the articles
			based on what it believes to be the appropriate language. Using the
			advanced search will provide a easy drop-down box for this.
			</dd>
			</dl>
			<br><br></dd>

			<dt><b><a name="guide_3">Advanced Search Tool</a></b><br><br></dt>
			<dd>
			Coming soon...
			<br><br></dd>

			<dt><b><a name="guide_4">Beyond Advanced Searches</a></b><br><br></dt>
			<dd>
			Coming soon...
			<br><br></dd>

		</div>
	</div>
	<div>
		<span class="larger"><a name="direct">
			Guide to Directory Suggestions and Approval
		</a></span>
		<br><br>
		<div class="margin2em">
			<dl>
			<dt><b><a name="direct_1">Record Submission
			</a></b><br><br></dt>
			<dd>
			To suggest a record for entry into the directory, click 'Expand' next
			to the title in the OAIS search results. Once expanded, there will be
			either an option to 'Suggest' or 'Directory'. If the 'Directory'
			option is available, this means that the record is already in the
			directory and you can click it to view where it is. Otherwise, you may
			click the 'Suggest' option to open a suggestion form.
			<br><br>
			On the suggestion form, you may edit the title, description and URL
			prior to making the suggestion. It is recommended that you shorten the
			title and description if necessary, so that is it concise for the
			directory. It is not recommended that you edit the URL with exception
			for the cases where no URL is provided.
			<br><br>
			Below the suggest button is a view of the directory structure. You
			should navigate the directory until you find an appropriate spot
			for the record. Review your suggestion and make sure everything is
			in order, then submit the suggestion. An editor will review your
			suggestion and either approve or reject it. Upon approval, it will
			be be visible in the directory.
			<br><br></dd>
			<dt><b><a name="direct_2">Directory Submission
			</a></b><br><br></dt>
			<dd>
			Directory submission is easiest done by browsing the directory
			to a point where you wish to suggest the new subdirectory and
			clicking 'Suggest Directory/Link' at the bottom of the page.
			<br><br>
			Once at the suggestion page, the directory navigation at the bottom
			of the page should already be pointing to the part of the directory
			you were in. You can modify this location by navigating the directory
			at the bottom as you would when suggesting a record.
			<br><br>
			At this point, all you must do is enter a title and 
			optional description. Once submitted, an editor will either approve
			or reject the submission. Upon approval, it will become visible in
			the directory.
			<br><br>
			
			<br><br></dd>
			<dt><b><a name="direct_3">Link Submission
			</a></b><br><br></dt>
			<dd>
			Coming soon...
			<br><br></dd>
			<dt><b><a name="direct_4">Editor Approval
			</a></b><br><br></dt>
			<dd>
			Editors may log into the system using the 'Editor Login' link at the
			bottom of the main OAIS page. From here they may select 'Approve
			Submissions'. All open suggestions will be appear on the screen
			with appropriate actions.
			<br><br>
			Editors should spend a minute on each suggestion, review the
			record, the link it points to, the location in the directory and check
			for errors in the suggestion. 
			<br><br></dd>
		</div>
	</div>
</p>

